Gulini 9th in Saas-Fee Halfpipe

SAAS-FEE, Switzerland (Oct. 31) – Janne Korpi of Finland and China’s Jiayu Liu took home the top honors during the season’s second halfpipe World Cup in Saas-Fee, Switzerland on Friday.

Faye Gulini (Salt Lake City) finished 9th in the women’s competition and led the way for a small group of U.S. competitors which included Olympian Andy Finch in 13th, 2002 Olympic bronze medalists JJ Thomas (Golden, CO) in 14th, Keir Dillon (Carlsbad, CA) in 15th, and U.S. Snowboarding Rookie Brennen Swanson (Stillwater, MN) in 19th.

Japan’s Kohdai Watanabe (no direct relation to American snowboarder Graham Watanabe) was second for the men, followed by Ilkka-Eemeli Laari of Finland. In the women’s competition, Japan’s Shiho Nakashima was second and Sophie Rodriguez of France was third.